Facebook would rather I didn’t say this…

There are a couple things about Facebook ads that Zuckerberg would prefer I didn’t tell you. But, you should be informed.

First off, you may remember the Page Like Story and Sponsored Story ads I’ve discussed. They’re the ones that tell your friends that you’ve “Liked” something in hopes of getting people to follow your excellent lead. They do work well, but Facebook had a bit of legal trouble with them.

It turns out there was no way to opt out of having your “Likes” shown to others. A handful of users sued Facebook about this and the case was settled for $20 million — half for lawyers, half for charity. Also, you’ll now be able to opt out having your “Likes” publicized.

If the case had gone forward, Facebook could have been looking at a class action with 100 million members. I think they’re pretty happy with the outcome.

The other thing you should be aware of is that Facebook ads are really bad at sending traffic to your website.

My experience with this echoes what I’ve heard from others. If you set up an ad on Facebook that is a link to your own website rather than your Facebook Page, it’s not going to do you much good.

When people are on Facebook, they don’t seem to want to leave. If they do click your ad and land on your website, they won’t stay long. I’ve seen bounce rates over 90% and average time on site less than 10 seconds from these ads.

It’s a big waste of money.

It’s a different story when your ad leads people to your Facebook Page. Assuming there’s something beyond self promotional content on it, you could convert 30% or more into fans.

Once you have a fan, you can reach them over and over again. That’s how you get them onto your website — get them to “Like” you first, then invite them over for milk and cookies.

Just be sure to keep the blatant self promotion to a minimum.

Here are a few things you can post to get Facebook fans onto your site:

Interesting blog posts

Photos

Engaging videos

Contests

Coupons or discounts (You know, self promotion disguised as a favor.)

Mix that with some curated content — good stuff you find on other websites — and you’ll have a better Page than most.

Speaking of curated content, you might find these links about content strategy helpful: